The present invention relates to a battery mounting structure of an electromotive vehicle, in which plural battery modules having substantially the same shape are mounted below a vehicle floor as a unit.
In general, plural battery modules are mounted below a vehicle floor as a unit in an electromotive vehicle, such as an electric automotive vehicle. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-248708, for example, discloses a structure in which the plural battery modules are mounted in the almost whole area below the vehicle floor and on the rear suspension via the tray. In this structure, the plural rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped battery modules having the rectangular section along their longitudinal direction are arranged in both the vehicle longitudinal and width directions such that the longitudinal direction of each of the battery modules matches the vehicle longitudinal direction and the short side of the rectangular section of each of the battery modules extends in the vehicle vertical direction.
Herein, there is a case in which the vehicle floor comprises a front floor portion and a rear floor portion which is located above the front floor portion. In this case, generally, a rear seat is arranged on a rear floor portion, and a rear portion of the front floor portion is formed as a foot place for a passenger seated in the rear seat.
In the case of mounting the plural battery modules below the vehicle floor, the height of a space for mounting the battery modules located below the rear floor portion is greater than that of a space located below the front floor portion. Accordingly, the height of the battery modules mounted below the rear floor portion can be greater than that of the ones mounted below the front floor portion.
However, if the plural battery modules mounted on the vehicle have different shapes from each other, the manufacturing costs of the battery modules may increase, and the mount processes of the battery modules to the vehicle may deteriorate, thereby increasing the assembling costs as well.
Meanwhile, in case all of the battery modules having the same shape are arranged in the same direction like the structure disclosed in the above-described publication, the mount space of the battery modules below the rear floor portion may not be utilized properly.
Herein, while US Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0024207 discloses a cooling structure for the electromotive vehicle equipped with the battery modules, the above-described problem of the battery mount has not been solved by the structure disclosed in this patent document.